A terminally-ill bowel cancer patient has been told she must find £11,000 to be flown home from hospital in Amsterdam to the UK by air ambulance.

Lauren Dennis, 22, took ill last month while on what was meant to be a four-day trip to the country with her mother.

The chemistry student was admitted with severe vomiting to the A&E department at Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG) Hospital in the Amsterdam-Oost region three weeks ago.

After an operation to remove a tumour that was obstructing her bowel, she now needs to be transferred to The Royal Marsden, the specialist cancer centre where she’s been receiving treatment, in Chelsea, London. The Dutch surgeons removed part of her bowel and also discovered two more tumours in her liver.

But while Lauren has been told the cost of her care at the hospital is covered by the free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), the cost of emergency travel back is not included. She is due to be discharged from Wednesday this week.

A rough year

Lauren, from West Brompton, told i: “I’ve had a rough past year of treatment with round after round of chemotherapy and I got the all clear from doctors to take a little trip with my mum. I just wanted to see the tulips and have a nice break.

“But then I started to feel violently sick and was shocked to find out my cancer has spread further and the tumour was obstructing my bowel.

“The EHIC is great in that it’s covered all the costs of my operation, medications and care but I’m feeling really stressed over how I’m going to get to The Royal as I’ve been told I have to foot the bill.

“The doctors here won’t let me fly on a normal plane because if anything happened they’d be responsible. I’ve been sent a list of organisations that provide air ambulances and it’s going to cost at least £11,000, which I need to find urgently.

“I was named on my parents’ travel insurance but because I had been in hospital before the trip I was deemed medically unfit and wasn’t covered.”

The 22-year-old faces a bill of £11,000 to fly home to the UK.

Lauren’s case comes as the status of the EHIC is uncertain in Brexit talks. Medical charities have warned changes could prevent those with long-term conditions from leaving the country at all.

‘Being told you have cancer at 21 is devastating’

Lauren was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer at the age of 21 after vomiting and feeling extremely lethargic. She says when she first began suffering symptoms, during repeated trips to her GP she was told it looked like she had irritable bowel syndrome or gallstones.

After her condition got worse, she was admitted to her local A&E where she was suspected of having an ovarian cyst. An ultrasound showed a large ovarian mass the size of a grapefruit had engulfed the left ovary.

She was told it was malignant and had emergency surgery to remove the mass. Doctors had discussed carrying out a hysterectomy which would have left her infertile.

But then a biopsy revealed the tumour in her ovary had cells that indicated the cancer had originated from the bowel, which had then spread to her ovary and also her liver.

However, doctors couldn’t see a tumour in her bowel. Further investigations eventually revealed a hidden mass deep in her lower bowel but medics felt surgically removing it would be risky. She has since endured four rounds of chemotherapy.

Lauren said that despite her poor prognosis, she tries to stay positive. “Being told you have cancer at 21 is devastating,” she said. “Bowel cancer is an old person’s disease, so I thought, and is unusual in people my age, so I feel I have no-one to relate to.

“But I’m hoping that treatment will buy me time. The most important thing I have learnt is to take things one day at a time and enjoy life. None of us know what is around the corner.

“I managed to go back to uni to study part-time, and in between treatments I was playing netball three times a week and even going clubbing with my friends.”

A valid EHIC card gives you the right to access state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in another European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland. But each country’s health system is different and might not include all the things you would expect to get free on the NHS. This means you may have to make a contribution.

Treatment should be provided on the same basis as it would to a resident of that country, either at a reduced cost or, in many cases, for free. It also covers the treatment of pre-existing medical conditions and routine maternity care, provided you haven’t visited specifically to give birth or seek treatment.

The EHIC will not cover any private medical healthcare or costs, such as mountain rescue in ski resorts, being flown back to the UK, or lost or stolen property. It is not valid on cruises. For more information, see the NHS’s county-by-country guide.

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